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The-world-s-WORST-babysitter · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety nine, a father arrived at a train
0:02
Speaker 1: station to pick up his teenage daughter from school, but
0:06
Speaker 1: when the train she was supposed to be on arrived
0:08
Speaker 1: at the station, she didn't get off, and so the
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Speaker 1: father just sat in the parking lot, assuming his daughter
0:13
Speaker 1: must be late and she'll be on the next train.
0:16
Speaker 1: But as more and more trains came into the station,
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Speaker 1: none of them were carrying his daughter, and so eventually
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Speaker 1: this father just left the parking lot and headed back home,
0:25
Speaker 1: believing his daughter must have found another way home. Unfortunately, though,
0:29
Speaker 1: that was not the case. It would turn out his
0:31
Speaker 1: daughter had made a fateful decision that day that would
0:35
Speaker 1: soon turn her and her family's lives into a nightmare.
0:39
Speaker 1: But before we get into that story, if you're a
0:41
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:45
Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place because that's all
0:47
Speaker 1: we do, and we upload once a week. So if
0:49
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Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly upload. Okay, let's
1:01
Speaker 1: get into today's story. In nineteen ninety eight, the Barber
1:17
Speaker 1: family was living a charmed life. Michael and Elizabeth had
1:21
Speaker 1: been happily married for twenty years, and they had three
1:24
Speaker 1: beautiful daughters who ranged in age from nine to fifteen,
1:27
Speaker 1: and they were all thriving. The family lived in a
1:30
Speaker 1: very modest, plain looking home in Melbourne, Australia, but the
1:34
Speaker 1: second you stepped foot inside of that home, you would
1:37
Speaker 1: see it was bursting with life. The sounds of kids
1:40
Speaker 1: laughing and playing, and of Michael and Elizabeth happily chatting
1:44
Speaker 1: away filled every room. Now, the Barber's lives were not
1:47
Speaker 1: perfect by any means. In fact, they struggled financially and
1:50
Speaker 1: lived basically paycheck to paycheck. However, they didn't let their
1:54
Speaker 1: financial struggles define them. Instead, Michael and Elizabeth put a
1:58
Speaker 1: lot of stock in another aspect of their lives that
2:01
Speaker 1: they were all undeniably rich in.
2:04
Speaker 2: And that was in creativity.
2:06
Speaker 1: Michael was a toy maker and a designer, and Elizabeth
2:09
Speaker 1: worked in children's literature, and each of the three Barber
2:13
Speaker 1: children were beginning to cultivate their own unique creative gifts.
2:16
Speaker 1: At nine years old, Heather, who was the youngest, had
2:19
Speaker 1: developed a lovely singing voice. Ashley Rose, who was the
2:22
Speaker 1: middle child at eleven years old, had learned to play
2:25
Speaker 1: the flute, but the barber's oldest daughter, fifteen year old Rachel,
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Speaker 1: was really the star of the family. In fact, they
2:31
Speaker 1: called her that Rachel Star. Rachel was an extremely talented dancer.
2:36
Speaker 1: She was so graceful and stylish that even when she
2:39
Speaker 1: was just walking around, it almost looked like she was dancing.
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Speaker 1: Rachel was also very beautiful, with big emerald green eyes
2:46
Speaker 1: and fair skin, and she had this effortless charisma that
2:49
Speaker 1: just drew people to her. From the outside, Rachel really
2:53
Speaker 1: did look like the kid who had everything going for her.
2:56
Speaker 1: But like the rest of us, Rachel had her own struggles.
3:00
Speaker 1: She was not a natural student. No matter how hard
3:02
Speaker 1: she tried, math and science just seemed impossible to her.
3:06
Speaker 1: And Rachel had a number of acute fears that really
3:10
Speaker 1: made certain aspects of her life very challenging.
3:13
Speaker 2: She was deathly afraid of the dark.
3:15
Speaker 1: She was afraid of talking to strangers, she was afraid
3:17
Speaker 1: of navigating the public transportation system on her own, and
3:21
Speaker 1: even just the thought of going into a store by
3:23
Speaker 1: herself filled her with immense dread. As a result of
3:27
Speaker 1: having these fears, Rachel was actually very dependent on her parents.
3:32
Speaker 1: Her mother, Elizabeth, would jokingly say that Rachel was fifteen
3:36
Speaker 1: going on eighteen going on twelve. Eventually, when Rachel's anxieties
3:41
Speaker 1: and fears, combined with her struggles with traditional schoolwork put
3:45
Speaker 1: her into a bit of a depression, her parents decided
3:48
Speaker 1: they needed to step in and take action. They wanted
3:50
Speaker 1: their Rachel Star to be happy. They wanted to encourage
3:54
Speaker 1: her and nurture her strengths and the thing that they
3:56
Speaker 1: knew she loved the most and was the best at dance.
4:01
Speaker 1: So in September of nineteen ninety eight, Michael and Elizabeth
4:04
Speaker 1: allowed Rachel to drop out of her traditional school and
4:07
Speaker 1: transferred to a full time dance school in Richmond, which
4:11
Speaker 1: was an inner city suburb of Melbourne, located about twenty
4:14
Speaker 1: minutes away from the Barber's house. And once Rachel was
4:17
Speaker 1: enrolled in this new dance school, she blossomed. She made
4:20
Speaker 1: loads of new friends, she started modeling, which was something
4:23
Speaker 1: she was very proud of, and she met a boy, Manny.
4:27
Speaker 2: Who she absolutely adored.
4:29
Speaker 1: But as well as things seemed to be going for
4:32
Speaker 1: Rachel at her new school, she would soon make a
4:34
Speaker 1: fateful decision that would have absolutely catastrophic effects. On Monday,
4:40
Speaker 1: March first of nineteen ninety nine, so five months after
4:43
Speaker 1: Rachel had transferred to this new dance school, Rachel and
4:46
Speaker 1: her father, Michael, like every other morning, left the barber household,
4:50
Speaker 1: climbed into Michael's car and began driving to Wattle Park,
4:54
Speaker 1: which was a train station closest to their house. From
4:56
Speaker 1: Wattle Park, Rachel would catch a train that would take
4:59
Speaker 1: her to the Richmond station, and then she would get
5:01
Speaker 1: off she would meet up with a friend, they would
5:03
Speaker 1: have breakfast, and they would walk the rest of the
5:05
Speaker 1: way to their dance school.
5:06
Speaker 2: When Michael pulled into the parking lot at Wattle Park
5:09
Speaker 2: and parked the car, and.
5:11
Speaker 1: Rachel was getting her stuff to climb out of the
5:13
Speaker 1: vehicle to head up to the train, he stopped his
5:15
Speaker 1: daughter and said, Hey, remember, I'll be back here at
5:17
Speaker 1: six fifteen tonight to pick you up.
5:19
Speaker 2: And Rachel looked at.
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Speaker 1: Him, she smiled and said okay, and then she hopped
5:22
Speaker 1: out of the car and she pranced her way over
5:24
Speaker 1: to the station. Michael watched his daughter just long enough
5:27
Speaker 1: to see her climb the steps and disappear, at which
5:29
Speaker 1: point he put his car back in drive, he left
5:32
Speaker 1: the lot, and he headed back home. That evening, Michael
5:35
Speaker 1: returned to Wattle Park, but at six fifteen pm, when
5:38
Speaker 1: the train came rolling into the station, Rachel was not
5:41
Speaker 1: on board. Michael assumed his daughter must have been running
5:44
Speaker 1: late and so missed the train she would always take,
5:47
Speaker 1: and so he just sat in the parking lot and
5:49
Speaker 1: waited for the next train to come into the station.
5:51
Speaker 1: And a few minutes later, when it pulled into the station,
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Speaker 1: Rachel was not on that train either, And so Michael
5:56
Speaker 1: he was starting to get worried because he's looking outside,
5:59
Speaker 1: it's getting dark. He knows his daughter hates being out
6:01
Speaker 1: in the dark. She's afraid of being alone, and he's wondering,
6:04
Speaker 1: you know, what's going on with her. But he keeps
6:05
Speaker 1: telling himself that she's bound to show up any minute.
6:08
Speaker 1: And so Michael just sat in this parking lot and
6:10
Speaker 1: watched train after train after train come through the station
6:13
Speaker 1: and Rachel wasn't on any of them. Now, Michael didn't
6:16
Speaker 1: have a cell phone, and neither did Rachel, so he
6:18
Speaker 1: couldn't just call her to see where she was. But finally,
6:21
Speaker 1: after a few more trains came through, and none of
6:23
Speaker 1: them contained his daughter. He left the parking lot, but
6:26
Speaker 1: went to his parents' house, which was much closer than
6:29
Speaker 1: his own home, and he rushed inside and he grabbed
6:31
Speaker 1: their phone and he called back to his home, and
6:33
Speaker 1: when his wife, Elizabeth, Rachel's mom, picked up the phone,
6:36
Speaker 1: he immediately asked her, Hey, is Rachel home? Did she
6:39
Speaker 1: get a ride home from one of her friends? And
6:41
Speaker 1: Elizabeth would tell Michael, no, she's not here and she
6:44
Speaker 1: hasn't called. This was the moment when Michael and Elizabeth
6:47
Speaker 1: instinctively knew something.
6:49
Speaker 2: Had to be wrong.
6:50
Speaker 1: Rachel was on time for everything, and if she was late,
6:53
Speaker 1: she would always call ahead or call afterwards and at
6:56
Speaker 1: least give some explanation. But to just go silent and
6:59
Speaker 1: not show up, that was not in character. And again,
7:02
Speaker 1: because it was pitch black outside and they knew she
7:04
Speaker 1: was probably alone, that was the situation they knew Rachel
7:08
Speaker 1: would never want to be in because it would have
7:09
Speaker 1: terrified her. And so Michael tells Elizabeth he's going to
7:12
Speaker 1: come home as fast as he can. They hang up,
7:15
Speaker 1: and then while Elizabeth is waiting for her husband to return,
7:18
Speaker 1: she picked the phone right back up and she dialed
7:20
Speaker 1: Manny's number.
7:21
Speaker 2: That's Rachel's boyfriend.
7:22
Speaker 1: She figured maybe Rachel was with Manny, or at the
7:25
Speaker 1: very least, maybe she checked in with Manny, because most
7:28
Speaker 1: nights Rachel and Manny spoke on the phone. But when
7:31
Speaker 1: Manny picked up the phone, he would tell Elizabeth that
7:34
Speaker 1: he hasn't seen Rachel since earlier in the day and
7:37
Speaker 1: she has not called him, which to him was odd.
7:39
Speaker 1: When Elizabeth asked, Manny, you know what was my daughter
7:42
Speaker 1: doing when you were with her last Manny would say, oh,
7:44
Speaker 1: we went out to a shopping mall near the school
7:47
Speaker 1: in Richmond, and we went to the shoe store, and
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Speaker 1: Rachel actually walked up to a very particular set of shoes.
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Speaker 2: They were these big.
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Speaker 1: Platform, blue chunky shoes, and she said that she was
7:57
Speaker 1: going to buy them the next day and she was
7:59
Speaker 1: really excited about it. And Elizabeth, as she's hearing this,
8:02
Speaker 1: she knew exactly the shoes that Manny was describing, because
8:06
Speaker 1: just the day before, Rachel had taken her mom, Elizabeth,
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Speaker 1: to the shoe store and pleaded with her to get those.
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Speaker 2: Blue, chunky platform shoes.
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Speaker 1: But when Elizabeth had looked at the price tag, they
8:17
Speaker 1: were one hundred dollars, and so they were too expensive.
8:20
Speaker 1: And so as Elizabeth is hearing Manny say that her
8:22
Speaker 1: daughter is talking about how she's going to buy these
8:25
Speaker 1: shoes the next day, Elizabeth is thinking, with what money?
8:28
Speaker 1: Rachel has no money, how could she possibly afford those shoes?
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Speaker 1: And so she asked, Manny, you know, did Rachel say
8:34
Speaker 1: how she planned on affording those blue shoes? And Manny
8:38
Speaker 1: would say, actually, yeah, she told me that she had
8:41
Speaker 1: this secret job, but she wouldn't give me any more
8:44
Speaker 1: details about it, and she said that with the money
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Speaker 1: from this secret job, she'd be able to buy these shoes.
8:50
Speaker 1: Manny would tell Elizabeth that Rachel really stressed that this
8:53
Speaker 1: secret job was nothing to worry about, It was nothing immoral.
8:57
Speaker 1: But as Elizabeth is listening to Manny tell her that
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Speaker 1: all her alarm bells are going off, she could not
9:03
Speaker 1: fathom any job that would require a fifteen year old
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Speaker 1: girl to go out by herself at night, doing something
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Speaker 1: that was secret and give absolutely no information to her family.
9:15
Speaker 1: Every possibility just seemed bad. After hanging up the phone
9:18
Speaker 1: with Manny, Elizabeth began frantically calling all of Rachel's friends
9:22
Speaker 1: and acquaintances. And different locations around town that she knew
9:26
Speaker 1: her daughter would frequent, but nobody had any information about
9:30
Speaker 1: where Rachel was a little while later, Michael finally pulled
9:33
Speaker 1: into the driveway and when he went inside, he talked
9:36
Speaker 1: to his wife briefly, but he could tell they.
9:38
Speaker 2: Had no new information. Their daughter was still not home.
9:41
Speaker 1: This was becoming a crisis, and so very quickly Michael
9:44
Speaker 1: just left the house, got right back into his car,
9:46
Speaker 1: and he drove.
9:47
Speaker 2: To the police station.
9:48
Speaker 1: But when he got to the police station, the police
9:51
Speaker 1: didn't really offer the response that he was hoping for.
9:54
Speaker 2: From the police's perspective, it.
9:56
Speaker 1: Sounded like a teenage girl has been missing for a
9:59
Speaker 1: few hours, and so in their mind they're thinking, one,
10:02
Speaker 1: that's not an emergency yet, and two, she probably just
10:06
Speaker 1: kind of ran off.
10:07
Speaker 2: Teenagers do that, They come back the next day. It's normal.
10:10
Speaker 2: And so despite Michael's pleas to the police that know
10:13
Speaker 2: this is different. My daughter would never do that, She
10:16
Speaker 2: would never run away, This is totally out of character.
10:19
Speaker 1: Despite all those pleas, the police said, look, Michael, just
10:22
Speaker 1: go home. Wait, your daughter will be home soon. And
10:25
Speaker 1: if for some reason in the next few days she
10:28
Speaker 1: does not come back home, you come back and you
10:30
Speaker 1: tell us. And so Michael, now feeling totally devastated and
10:34
Speaker 1: terrified for his daughter's safety, finally did just leave the
10:37
Speaker 1: police station and he headed back home. And then he
10:40
Speaker 1: and his wife and his two other daughters had a terrible,
10:43
Speaker 1: restless night's sleep wondering what was going on with Rachel.
10:46
Speaker 1: And then finally, when the sun came up the next morning,
10:49
Speaker 1: Michael and Elizabeth rushed out of their bedroom and headed
10:52
Speaker 1: into the kitchen, hoping, praying that Rachel would just magically
10:56
Speaker 1: be in their house again.
10:57
Speaker 2: But when they went into the kitchen, Rachel wasn't there.
11:00
Speaker 2: She had not come home. However.
11:02
Speaker 1: Pretty early on on this second day of Rachel's disappearance,
11:06
Speaker 1: Michael and Elizabeth would learn something new. Manny would get
11:09
Speaker 1: in touch with Michael and Elizabeth and he would tell
11:12
Speaker 1: them that he remembered something Rachel had said during their
11:15
Speaker 1: final conversation the day before. She had told Manny that
11:18
Speaker 1: he had nothing to worry about with regards to this
11:20
Speaker 1: secret job because it wasn't tomorl it was totally safe,
11:24
Speaker 1: and Manny said, Rachel said there was an old female
11:27
Speaker 1: friend who was.
11:28
Speaker 2: Going to be there at this job site.
11:31
Speaker 1: In some way participating that would keep her safe. And
11:34
Speaker 1: so Michael and Elizabeth have no idea what to make
11:37
Speaker 1: of this old female friend. But in a way it
11:40
Speaker 1: was kind of a relief because they know their daughter
11:42
Speaker 1: is basically terrified to be alone, and so at least
11:46
Speaker 1: knowing wherever she was she was with this old friend
11:49
Speaker 1: that made them feel good. But the parents positivity about
11:53
Speaker 1: this new development quickly faded when they began calling around
11:57
Speaker 1: to all of Rachel's friends, both new and old, female
12:01
Speaker 1: and otherwise, and none of them were missing. Everybody was
12:05
Speaker 1: where they were supposed to be, and nobody knew anything
12:08
Speaker 1: about what happened to Rachel.
12:10
Speaker 2: The only intel the parents got from this.
12:12
Speaker 1: Round of calling all of her friends was that several
12:15
Speaker 1: of her friends said that the day before, the day
12:18
Speaker 1: Rachel disappeared, they had walked with Rachel back to the
12:21
Speaker 1: train station after school, and in fact, one of the
12:24
Speaker 1: friends told Michael and Elizabeth that they offered Rachel a
12:27
Speaker 1: ride home so that she wouldn't have to ride the
12:30
Speaker 1: train back home, but Rachel had turned it down, saying
12:33
Speaker 1: her father was going to be meeting her on the
12:35
Speaker 1: other end at Wattle Park at six fifteen pm.
12:38
Speaker 2: The Barbers didn't know what to make of this.
12:40
Speaker 1: Did Rachel believe at the time that she could go
12:42
Speaker 1: do this secret job and still be back in time
12:45
Speaker 1: to meet her father at six fifteen at Wattle Park
12:48
Speaker 1: Or did she lie to the friend who was offering
12:51
Speaker 1: the ride and make up the story that she planned
12:53
Speaker 1: on seeing her father when in reality she planned on
12:56
Speaker 1: ditching her father and going and doing this secret job
12:59
Speaker 1: for the night. But regard regardless of which of these
13:01
Speaker 1: things were true, the parents just still could not understand
13:04
Speaker 1: why by now twenty four hours later their daughter still
13:08
Speaker 1: had not called to check in. Michael and Elizabeth found
13:11
Speaker 1: themselves wondering if they really knew their Rachel star as
13:14
Speaker 1: well as they thought they did. You know, maybe she
13:16
Speaker 1: had actually run away like the police suggested. The parents
13:19
Speaker 1: were totally distraught. They were totally anxious and terrified, and
13:23
Speaker 1: so with nothing else to do. Over the next several days,
13:25
Speaker 1: they just continued to go out and look everywhere and
13:29
Speaker 1: talk to everyone to try to find where their daughter was,
13:32
Speaker 1: but everything they looked into.
13:34
Speaker 2: Turned into a dead end.
13:35
Speaker 1: Then, finally, on Monday, March eighth, so exactly one week
13:40
Speaker 1: since Rachel had disappeared, Michael and Elizabeth got a new lead.
13:44
Speaker 1: A girl named Alison, who had gone to a dance
13:47
Speaker 1: class with Rachel before Rachel had transferred schools, had overheard
13:51
Speaker 1: her younger sister talking about the Rachel Barber disappearance and
13:55
Speaker 1: how nobody had seen or heard from Rachel since five
13:59
Speaker 1: forty five pm the previous Monday. Alison, who had not
14:03
Speaker 1: heard about Rachel's disappearance until this very moment, knew immediately
14:07
Speaker 1: she had to go forward and talk to police because
14:11
Speaker 1: she actually saw Rachel on the night she disappeared, a
14:14
Speaker 1: full hour after her last known sighting. At six forty
14:18
Speaker 1: pm on the night Rachel disappeared, Alison was on the
14:22
Speaker 1: train car headed to parn which is a suburb located
14:25
Speaker 1: southeast of where Rachel lived.
14:27
Speaker 2: And when this train that Alison was on.
14:29
Speaker 1: Pulled into the Richmond station and the doors opened up,
14:32
Speaker 1: Alison watched as Rachel, along with this other girl who
14:35
Speaker 1: Alison didn't recognize, walked on board and then took seats
14:39
Speaker 1: right next to each other on the other end of
14:41
Speaker 1: the train away from Alison. Now, from Alison's perspective, immediately
14:45
Speaker 1: it was clear they were friends. They were laughing and
14:47
Speaker 1: joking together and just kind of in their own world,
14:50
Speaker 1: and so Allison didn't want to be rude, so she
14:52
Speaker 1: stopped staring at them, and they continued riding the train
14:55
Speaker 1: until they got to the Praron station, at which point
14:58
Speaker 1: Alison got up to leave the tra but as she did,
15:01
Speaker 1: she saw Rachel and this mystery girl. They also had
15:05
Speaker 1: stood up, and they were making their way out of
15:07
Speaker 1: the door, and as they were leaving, Rachel actually would
15:10
Speaker 1: look up and see Alison and they would both smile
15:12
Speaker 1: and wave at each other, but that was it. And
15:14
Speaker 1: then Alison would watch as Rachel and her friend would
15:17
Speaker 1: leave ahead of her and they would walk down the platform,
15:19
Speaker 1: and from Alison's perspective, it seemed obvious that Rachel and
15:23
Speaker 1: this girl were friends and whatever they were going to
15:25
Speaker 1: go do, they were choosing to go do, and they
15:28
Speaker 1: were going to do together. When Michael and Elizabeth heard
15:31
Speaker 1: about this sighting of their daughter on the train and
15:33
Speaker 1: this mystery girl, on the one hand, it was kind
15:35
Speaker 1: of reassuring because it meant that Rachel was with this friend,
15:39
Speaker 1: potentially the old female friend that Rachel mentioned to Manny,
15:43
Speaker 1: and so whatever she was doing, at least she was
15:45
Speaker 1: not alone. But on the other hand, it begged the
15:48
Speaker 1: question of what role did this mystery person play in
15:51
Speaker 1: wherever Rachel was now? Had Rachel and this mystery girl
15:55
Speaker 1: gone to do this secret job together and then something
15:58
Speaker 1: happened to them, or had this mystery girl ben Rachel's
16:01
Speaker 1: accomplice and they had run off together like the police thought.
16:05
Speaker 1: Whatever the case was, the Barbers and the police at
16:08
Speaker 1: this point, who were looking much more seriously into the
16:10
Speaker 1: Barber case by now, they knew the next step was
16:13
Speaker 1: identifying this mystery girl. A couple of days later, on Thursday,
16:17
Speaker 1: March eleventh, the police called in an artist to create
16:21
Speaker 1: a sketch of this mystery girl that Alison had seen
16:24
Speaker 1: on the train. Alison would describe this mystery girl as
16:27
Speaker 1: being older than Rachel, being heavier than Rachel, and very plain.
16:31
Speaker 1: That day, the police also ordered a trace on all
16:34
Speaker 1: of the phone calls going into the Barber residence on
16:37
Speaker 1: the day before she went missing, because they figured that
16:40
Speaker 1: if Rachel and this mystery girl were in cahoots on
16:43
Speaker 1: some sort of secret thing together, they likely communicated the
16:47
Speaker 1: day before, and when the phone call trace came back,
16:49
Speaker 1: there was one phone number in particular that stood out
16:52
Speaker 1: to police.
16:53
Speaker 2: There was a private.
16:54
Speaker 1: Phone number that called the Barber household twice on the
16:58
Speaker 1: day before Rachel disappeared at five twenty four pm, and
17:01
Speaker 1: that call lasted about fifteen minutes, and then shortly after
17:05
Speaker 1: that call ended, the private number called back, and then
17:08
Speaker 1: there was another conversation that lasted about thirty minutes. It
17:11
Speaker 1: would take police another twenty four hours, but eventually they
17:14
Speaker 1: would figure out who this private caller was. It was
17:17
Speaker 1: a twenty year old woman named Caroline Robertson, who very
17:21
Speaker 1: closely resembled the police sketch of the mystery girl that
17:25
Speaker 1: Alison had seen.
17:26
Speaker 2: On the train.
17:27
Speaker 1: And it just so happened that Caroline Robertson lived very
17:31
Speaker 1: close to the pro run train station where Alison saw
17:34
Speaker 1: the mystery girl and Rachel get off. Additionally, Caroline was
17:38
Speaker 1: Rachel's old babysitter and was very close with the Barber family,
17:42
Speaker 1: and so it seemed very likely that Caroline was both
17:45
Speaker 1: the mystery girl on the train and the old female
17:48
Speaker 1: friend that Rachel had mentioned to Manny when she told
17:51
Speaker 1: him about this secret job.
17:53
Speaker 2: This new information was.
17:55
Speaker 1: A huge relief from Michael and Elizabeth's perspective and the
17:58
Speaker 1: police's perspective. It now seemed very likely that Rachel and
18:03
Speaker 1: Caroline had just snuck off together and were now probably
18:06
Speaker 1: hiding out at Caroline's apartment near the Praun train station,
18:10
Speaker 1: and so believing they could put an end to this
18:13
Speaker 1: missing teenager drama, that night, the police hopped in their
18:16
Speaker 1: cars and they drove over to Caroline's apartment. But when
18:20
Speaker 1: they got there at five point twenty five pm, they
18:23
Speaker 1: very quickly realized that things were not as they seemed.
18:27
Speaker 1: Police walked up to Caroline's front door and they knocked
18:29
Speaker 1: and began yelling out for Caroline and Rachel to come outside,
18:33
Speaker 1: but nobody yelled back, and nobody opened the door.
18:36
Speaker 2: When they tried the handle, they found it was locked.
18:38
Speaker 1: So they got in touch with the property's real estate agent,
18:41
Speaker 1: who came out and gave them a set of spare keys,
18:44
Speaker 1: and when the police tried those keys, they found they
18:46
Speaker 1: still could not open the door because the door had
18:49
Speaker 1: been locked from the inside with a special latch, And
18:52
Speaker 1: so the police began walking around the perimeter of the
18:55
Speaker 1: building looking for another way inside. And as they're walking,
18:59
Speaker 1: one of the officers look up and sees a second
19:01
Speaker 1: floor window of the apartment is open, and it's open
19:05
Speaker 1: enough that clearly a person could slip inside, and so
19:08
Speaker 1: the police contacted the fire department, who showed up very quickly,
19:11
Speaker 1: and they put a ladder up against the side of
19:13
Speaker 1: the apartment that went up to that open window, and
19:16
Speaker 1: then a police officer began climbing up, and when he
19:19
Speaker 1: got up to the window and could look inside, he
19:21
Speaker 1: saw he was looking into a bedroom, and at first
19:24
Speaker 1: it looked totally ordinary until he noticed there was a
19:27
Speaker 1: body lying face down at the foot of the bed.
19:29
Speaker 2: On the ground. It was Caroline. The officer on the ladder.
19:33
Speaker 1: Immediately turned around and yelled for backup, and then he
19:36
Speaker 1: and other officers poured into the apartment, and before long Caroline,
19:40
Speaker 1: who did actually still have a pulse, but she was
19:43
Speaker 1: totally unconscious and not responding.
19:45
Speaker 2: She was being rushed to the hospital.
19:47
Speaker 1: And while that was happening, the remainder of the officers
19:50
Speaker 1: who were on site, they all went into the apartment
19:53
Speaker 1: to try to find Rachel. And so as they're searching
19:55
Speaker 1: this apartment, which was totally messy, there was things everywhere,
19:58
Speaker 1: There were boxes everywhere. It almost looked like Caroline had
20:01
Speaker 1: been packing her apartment to move potentially when something happened
20:06
Speaker 1: to her, causing her to fall unconscious inside of her bedroom,
20:09
Speaker 1: and so the police searched this apartment top to bottom,
20:12
Speaker 1: and they did not find Rachel. In fact, there was
20:14
Speaker 1: no trace of Rachel anywhere, except they did find a
20:17
Speaker 1: bag of clothes that looked like they were Rachel's size,
20:21
Speaker 1: not Caroline size, but it wasn't clear if those were
20:23
Speaker 1: actually Rachel's close and so the police just kind of
20:26
Speaker 1: walked around the apartment gathering up anything that seemed suspicious,
20:30
Speaker 1: like they found rubber gloves and hair dye. They found
20:32
Speaker 1: some bank receipts and some notebooks with some strange writing
20:35
Speaker 1: in them, and they just hoped that some of this
20:38
Speaker 1: stuff might lead to Rachel. Back at the hospital, Caroline
20:41
Speaker 1: had regained consciousness, and even though she was very disoriented
20:45
Speaker 1: and seemed kind of out of it, the medical staff
20:47
Speaker 1: allowed the police to come in right away and start
20:50
Speaker 1: asking questions because they knew time was of the essence
20:53
Speaker 1: with Rachel.
20:53
Speaker 2: They had to find her.
20:55
Speaker 1: And so the officers came into Caroline's room and they
20:58
Speaker 1: sat down and the first question they asked her was
21:00
Speaker 1: do you know where Rachel Barber is? And Caroline just
21:03
Speaker 1: stood there, kind of stunned for a second, and then
21:06
Speaker 1: just said yes. Over the next few months, as Caroline's
21:10
Speaker 1: memory came back into focus, she would piece together one
21:14
Speaker 1: of the most unbelievable stories that police in Melbourne had
21:17
Speaker 1: ever heard. The following is a reconstruction of that story,
21:21
Speaker 1: based both on Caroline's testimony and on what police were
21:25
Speaker 1: able to actually fact check. Back on Sunday, February twenty eighth,
21:29
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, so the day before Rachel vanished, Caroline
21:33
Speaker 1: called Rachel and offered her a job. Caroline told Rachel
21:37
Speaker 1: that she was working on this psychology study and she
21:40
Speaker 1: needed participants. However, the study was highly confidential, so if
21:44
Speaker 1: Rachel did want to be a part of it, she
21:46
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to tell anyone what she was doing. However,
21:49
Speaker 1: the study was quite lucrative for Rachel, and it really
21:52
Speaker 1: didn't require much of Rachel.
21:54
Speaker 2: All Rachel had to.
21:55
Speaker 1: Do was meet Caroline the following day after school was
21:58
Speaker 1: over over at the Richmond train station and then the
22:01
Speaker 1: two of them would ride the train to Praron. They
22:03
Speaker 1: would get off, make their way to Caroline's apartment and
22:06
Speaker 1: there they would conduct this psychological study and when it
22:09
Speaker 1: was over, Caroline would pay Rachel one hundred dollars and
22:13
Speaker 1: the cost of transportation. And so Rachel, she was thrilled
22:16
Speaker 1: at the idea because she wanted those beautiful blue shoes,
22:19
Speaker 1: and so she said yes. So the next day, Monday,
22:22
Speaker 1: March first, Rachel wrapped up school. She made her way
22:25
Speaker 1: to the Richmond train station. She connected with Caroline. They
22:28
Speaker 1: hopped on board the train. They made their way to Praron,
22:31
Speaker 1: with Alison spotting them on the train as they went.
22:34
Speaker 1: And then when they got off the train at pron,
22:36
Speaker 1: Caroline and Rachel would make their way to a nearby
22:38
Speaker 1: pizza shop and get a pizza and some beer, and
22:41
Speaker 1: then they would walk the rest of the way to
22:43
Speaker 1: Caroline's apartment. Once they were inside the apartment, Caroline led
22:46
Speaker 1: them upstairs to her bedroom, and then they both sat
22:49
Speaker 1: down on the floor at the foot of the bed
22:51
Speaker 1: and began eating their pizza and having some beer and
22:54
Speaker 1: just laughing and exchanging some stories. And then after their
22:56
Speaker 1: dinner was over, Caroline told Rachel it was time to
22:59
Speaker 1: start the study, and it began with a guided meditation.
23:03
Speaker 1: Sitting next to Rachel, Caroline told her to stay calm,
23:07
Speaker 1: think happy thoughts, close your eyes, and just begin to
23:10
Speaker 1: breathe in nice and slow, breathe out nice and slow,
23:13
Speaker 1: and just feel yourself breathing in and out.
23:16
Speaker 2: And so Rachel did as she was told.
23:18
Speaker 1: And began breathing in and out and being very calm.
23:21
Speaker 1: And Caroline at this point she stood up and began
23:23
Speaker 1: kind of pacing around the room, watching Rachel periodically and
23:27
Speaker 1: reminding her to think happy thoughts and stay calm and
23:30
Speaker 1: keep just listening to herself breathe in and breathe out.
23:33
Speaker 1: And then at some point Caroline just stopped and stood
23:35
Speaker 1: right in front of Rachel and just stared at her
23:38
Speaker 1: really intently. And at some point, Caroline was confident that
23:41
Speaker 1: the drugs she had laced in the pizza that she
23:43
Speaker 1: had given Rachel were starting to take an effect.
23:46
Speaker 2: It looked like Rachel was.
23:47
Speaker 1: Starting to doze off, and so at that point Caroline
23:50
Speaker 1: walked around behind Rachel, who still had her eyes closed.
23:53
Speaker 1: She's still doing the study, and Caroline pulled out a
23:56
Speaker 1: telephone cord. She wrapped it around Rachel's neck and pulled
24:00
Speaker 1: it as tight as she could. Immediately, Rachel came out
24:02
Speaker 1: of her trance and she reached up and began trying
24:04
Speaker 1: to pull the cord off of her neck, but Caroline
24:07
Speaker 1: was easily fifty pounds heavier than Rachel and easily was
24:10
Speaker 1: able to maintain control over Rachel. And so Rachel is
24:14
Speaker 1: scirming and fighting and scratching and doing everything she can
24:16
Speaker 1: to try to get this cord off, but she can't,
24:18
Speaker 1: and eventually the fight just leaves her body and she
24:21
Speaker 1: goes still. Caroline would maintain tension on that cord to
24:25
Speaker 1: ensure Rachel was dead, but then eventually she would release
24:28
Speaker 1: the tension on the cord, at which point she would
24:31
Speaker 1: drag Rachel's body into a nearby closet and she would
24:34
Speaker 1: shut the door. Two days later, Caroline would open that
24:37
Speaker 1: closet up, and she would drag Rachel's body back out
24:40
Speaker 1: of the closet with the cord still wrapped around her neck,
24:43
Speaker 1: and she would roll Rachel's body up in a carpet
24:45
Speaker 1: and then stuff her inside of a large army Duffel
24:48
Speaker 1: bag that Caroline had purchased for this exact reason for
24:51
Speaker 1: disposing Rachel's body. And then she called a taxi who
24:55
Speaker 1: came to her apartment, and she lugged Rachel's body still
24:58
Speaker 1: inside of this bag and dumped it in the taxi.
25:01
Speaker 1: And then she and Rachel's body, and the taxi driver
25:03
Speaker 1: drove about an hour north to rural Kilmore, where Caroline's
25:07
Speaker 1: father had a vacation home, and there she would bury
25:10
Speaker 1: Rachel's body in a shallow grave next to one of
25:13
Speaker 1: her childhood pets. When Caroline had been rushed to the
25:16
Speaker 1: hospital because she was found unconscious in her bedroom by police,
25:20
Speaker 1: the assumption was she and probably Rachel, had been attacked
25:24
Speaker 1: and that was why Caroline was unconscious. But what really
25:28
Speaker 1: happened is Caroline was in her apartment and she saw
25:31
Speaker 1: the police show up, and it made her so stressed
25:34
Speaker 1: that it triggered a seizure, and that was why she
25:37
Speaker 1: passed out in her bedroom. When she came to in
25:39
Speaker 1: the hospital and people began asking her what happened, she
25:42
Speaker 1: would say that Rachel's death was an accident. However, months later,
25:47
Speaker 1: after investigators had gone through all of the evidence they
25:50
Speaker 1: had collected from Caroline's apartment, they discovered Rachel's.
25:53
Speaker 2: Death was anything but accidental.
25:56
Speaker 1: According to the notebooks they found all over Caroline's apartment,
26:00
Speaker 1: which were basically Caroline's journals, Caroline hated herself.
26:03
Speaker 2: She totally loathed.
26:05
Speaker 1: Her physical image and who she was, and she was
26:08
Speaker 1: obsessed with the girl she used to babysit, Rachel Barber.
26:11
Speaker 1: Rachel was this beautiful, perfect person that Caroline wished she
26:16
Speaker 1: could be, and so one day Caroline decided she would
26:19
Speaker 1: just stop being Caroline and would literally become Rachel. And
26:23
Speaker 1: to do that, she would kill Rachel and.
26:26
Speaker 2: Assume her identity.
26:27
Speaker 1: The secret job, the psychology study that Caroline offered Rachel
26:32
Speaker 1: was a very intentional trap. She knew Rachel wanted money
26:35
Speaker 1: for things like those blue shoes, and she knew Rachel
26:39
Speaker 1: would trust Caroline. Caroline was her babysitter, and so Rachel
26:42
Speaker 1: would have no problem going into Caroline's apartment alone at
26:45
Speaker 1: night to get the money. Caroline planned to murder Rachel
26:49
Speaker 1: and stage it so it looked like Rachel had run away,
26:52
Speaker 1: and then afterwards, Caroline planned to lose forty five pounds
26:56
Speaker 1: and then get a nose job.
26:57
Speaker 2: So she would look more like Rachel.
27:00
Speaker 1: To complete her transformation, Caroline would legally change her name
27:04
Speaker 1: to Rachel Barber. In November of two thousand, Caroline Robertson
27:08
Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to murdering Rachel Barber and was sentenced to
27:11
Speaker 1: twenty years in prison. In January of twenty fifteen, Caroline
27:15
Speaker 1: was released after only serving fifteen of those twenty years.
27:20
Speaker 1: In the years after Rachel's death, Rachel's mother, Elizabeth, would
27:23
Speaker 1: write a book about the experience called The Perfect Victim,
27:26
Speaker 1: which would later be adapted into a major movie that
27:29
Speaker 1: starred some of Australia's biggest actors and actresses. On Wednesday,
27:34
Speaker 1: March twenty fourth, nineteen ninety nine, Rachel Barber's body was
27:37
Speaker 1: once again lowered into the ground, except this time she
27:40
Speaker 1: was surrounded by friends and family and.
27:42
Speaker 2: People who loved her.
27:44
Speaker 1: Over eight hundred and fifty people attended Rachel's funeral. They
27:47
Speaker 1: brought letters and poems and toys which were all buried
27:50
Speaker 1: with Rachel, as were the blue shoes that Rachel so
27:54
Speaker 1: wanted that she planned to buy with the one hundred
27:56
Speaker 1: dollars Caroline.
27:57
Speaker 2: Had promised her. So that's going to do it. If
28:02
Speaker 2: you got something out of today's episode and.
28:03
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28:06
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